Interview with Lyne Bellemare | Heirloom seeds

As the garden goes dormant, the opportunity presents itself to harvest not only the fruits, but also the seeds that help nourish a cycle of fascinating and precious generosity. With Promised land, seed producer and author Lyne Bellemare uncovers ancestral knowledge acquired over years of field research. Meeting with a guardian of a mishandled heritage.

How do we become passionate about seeds?

I started in community gardens because I didn’t have a lot of money and it allowed me to cultivate a garden year after year, from my own seeds. I realized that almost no one had any knowledge on the subject. Older gardeners knew how to reproduce more well-known varieties, like the tomato, but as soon as we got to biennials or slightly more complicated flowers, it was nothing. I fell in the soup!

I worked for 10 years for Heritage Seeds Canada, then I founded my company. There are very few of us in Quebec: only around twenty seed companies. When I search on Google, I often end up on my own site. It’s a little valued knowledge and it’s certain that I earned a better living as an interpreter, but I wouldn’t change my profession for anything in the world.

What is the relevance of saving seeds?

First and foremost is food security. We have lost 75% of vegetable varieties worldwide over the past century, which is a conservative figure. Humanity is witnessing the disappearance of selected plants for years. They will never come back. With the climate crisis we are experiencing, seeds are one of the keys to being able to feed everyone. It is with new varieties that we have selected to resist drought and more abundant rain that we will be able to face what is to come.

What is the picture in Quebec?

We do not have data for Quebec, but in the United States, research shows that more than 75% of vegetable varieties have been lost. It’s one to midnight. When borders closed due to COVID-19, growers were unable to purchase seeds, most of which came from outside the country and which had become as rare as toilet paper. It was a rout. If we are not self-sufficient in our seeds, cucumbers will be expensive at the grocery store!

Farmers must be able to exchange seeds with each other that are adapted to our land, to organic and ecological agriculture. Unfortunately, it takes a climate crisis for people to begin to realize the importance of this know-how and access to this heritage knowledge. No school curriculum in Canada teaches growing and saving seeds. How can a farmer learn to do this?

Your book is aimed at everyone, including amateur gardeners. What power do we have as an individual?

Seed companies cannot be responsible for saving all varieties. Sometimes people come to me with their grandmother’s tomato seeds that they can no longer keep because they live in the city. It is with gardeners, with a network of amateurs, that we will be able to preserve the latest varieties. And each person can make a difference, even in a small community garden, to take up the torch, and share this heritage in turn.

What are your tips for beginners?

Start with accessible varieties, i.e. lettuce, beans or tomatoes, which are the easiest to harvest and store, even when you have limited space. It’s not always conclusive the first time: persist and find out. Some municipal libraries offer training. Many offer a seed borrowing service that can be shared at the end of summer by bringing them back to pass around.

Also remember to order your seeds now. Before COVID-19, people used to do this in January-February. Now it’s happening before Christmas. I am also announcing that there will be shortages this year, because with the weather we have had, many crops have been damaged.

The words in this interview have been edited to fit the format.

Promised land. The art of producing your own seeds

Lyne Bellemare

Quebec America

215 pages